Bakgrund Hållbar utveckling har ett ökande fokus i samhället. Dagligen nämns det i samhällsdebatten och media om åtgärder för att främja och upprätthålla välståndet i en värld som hela tiden påminns om den pågående klimatförändringen.  Arbetsterapeututbildningen har idag endast ett fåtal kurser som har en inriktning mot hållbar utveckling medan behovet av kunskap för förståelse av sambandet mellan ämnet och arbetsterapi ökar. Studiens syfte är att beskriva arbetsterapeutstudenters kunskaper och attityder till hållbar utveckling. Kvantitativ metod användes i en egenutformad enkätundersökning. Deltagarna studerade sista terminen på arbetsterapeutprogrammet. Total 28 enkäter besvarades. Insamlade data sammanställdes via statistikprogrammet SPSS och analyserades deskriptivt.  Studiens resultat visar att deltagarna tycker att det är viktigt att få kunskap om hållbar utveckling och att man under utbildningen får möjlighet att lära sig mer om ämnet. Deltagarna angav att det fanns ett intresse av att arbeta med hållbar utveckling i sin kommande profession, men att flera inte känner sig tillräckligt förberedda. Författarnas slutsats är att ämnet hållbar utveckling behöver inkluderas mer under utbildningen för att öka kunskapen och ta vara på den kompetens arbetsterapeuter har som kan bidra till samhällets och individens hälsa.

The purpose of this essay is to study how and why the profession of occupational therapist evolved and what role their association played in 1944-1964. During the first decades of the post-war period, Swedish health care system grew. In particular, rehabilitation health care was developed, in which occupational therapy has a key role. The association of occupational therapists, FAST and later FSA, initially promoted the general development of the area, but after a few years it put more emphasis on the professional perspective itself. Other related professions had developed through the "exclusion" of competing groups in line with sociologist Frank Parkin's theory. However, in this study I find no evidence of FAST/FSA applying that method.  On the basis of empirical sources, such as the Association's meeting minutes, government committee reports, newspaper articles, personal notes, documents from the international organization WFOT's congresses, I describe how FAST/FSA and other key players acted during the studied period. FAST/FSA organized courses, began publishing a member paper, and built a reference library, but also lobbied with the purpose to establish the profession.  After a few years, FSA was expelled from the international organization of occupational therapists, WFOT, whose purpose was to develop the profession internationally by creating a standard of education. Sweden’s education did not meet that standard. After several government committee reports, it was only with a report in 1962 followed by a bill and parliamentary decision in 1964 that education of an acceptable standard was established. Thus, an important prerequisite was in place to regard occupational therapists as a profession in Sweden according to sociologist Magali Sarfatti Larsson's definition.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / The purpose of this study was, first, to develop an occupational therapy curriculum theory to serve as a guideline for South African occupational therapy educators wishing to expand their insight into their work. This was done and is presented on the basis of a critical review of key sources from the literature about curriculum. The occupational therapy curriculum arrived at in this manner was intended to serve as a basis for the development of a set of criteria in terms of which the ongoing viability of the existing written occupational therapy curriculum of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) could be evaluated. The set of criteria thus arrived at was then applied to three documents: the written Minimum Standards for the training of Occupational Therapists of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT), the written Minimum Standards for the training of Occupational Therapy students of the South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMOC), and the written Occupational Therapy curriculum of the University of the Western Cape. The purpose was to identify the curricular assumptions underpinning these documents, and also to evaluate their ongoing viability as guidelines (in the case of the WFOT and SAMOC documents) or as curricula (in the case of UWC). It was found that the Minimum Standards of WFOT are essentially informed by a rationalistic philosophy, and that its ongoing viability (as a guideline for minimum standards) appears to be limited. The evaluation of the Minimum Standards of the SAMOC produced similar findings. The UWC document proved to be more eclectic, but again with academic rationalism as the dominant curriculum paradigm. However adequate it might be for the present, the longer-term viability of the document appeared questionable. After adaptation had been made to the UWC document on the basis of the developed set of criteria, its immediate viability seemed to have been enhanced, but with little effect on its longer-term viability. The excercise suggested that the process of curriculum planning, evaluation and modification can be facilitated by the application of such a set of criteria, presenting as it does a "nutshell" overview of an existing or amended curriculum. This study confirms that written occupational therapy curricula and standards provide no guarantee that curriculum intentions will be realized. Such documents merely provide the parameters within which curriculum debates can occur and in terms of which curriculum planning. implementation and evaluation can take place. As intentions have to be manifested in practice. the creation of an occupational therapy curriculum that is viable in an enduring way will require a study similar to this one but which addresses the operational curriculum.